Bryn Mawr Computer Support

For years we have been getting questions from concerned parents about effective methods to keep their children safe online.  Often they are seeking specific advice about one product or another they may have read about or been pitched.  Almost universally, we have recommended against using one of these software packages. 

Our resistance to these packages were based on several factors: 

1. The software may - or may not - be secure.  As an arbiter between your PC Screen and the Internet, it becomes another potential point of vulnerability.
2. The software in most cases is poorly written and represents enough processor and memory overhead as to seriously degrade the performance of your machine.
3. If kids want to get past it, they will.  Guaranteed.

Our advice has always been to talk openly and honestly with children about what is and isn't acceptable in your house.

1. Set high expectations of behavior and then give them the responsibility to live up to them.  
2. If it is a family computer, position it so that the monitor is visible to the entire room. Make it uncomfortable and inconvenient for them to be looking at things they know they shouldn't be.  
3. Prepare them to deal with predators and the inevitable undesirable content by arming them with knowledge.  You can't keep the world away from them, so arm them with knowledge to effectively protect themselves. 

Now, we see that there are even more reasons to avoid monitoring software - some of the companies offering it are using your childrens' data for marketing.  This article introduces some of the recent revelations regarding the unscrupulous (in our opinion) practices of these companies. 

 

"...one of the top providers in the space doesn't just monitor what kids do for parents, but collects all the data -- including the text of chat room discussions -- and resells it to marketers. You have to imagine that this isn't exactly what the FTC (or parents) expects of such tools."

 Be wary.  Be open. Be responsible.

Sunlight Labs, A Sunlight Foundation pilot project to prototype tech ideas to improve government transparency and political influence disclosure, has announced the 3 finalists of 47 contenders in the Apps for America contest.  You can find the finalist announcement here, as well as sign up to vote!

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

 

Seeking associates to work in the shop with the goal of becoming partners.  Must be comfortable with Windows and Mac and not afraid to poke around in various LAMP and Linux server configurations.  Hardware skills a must.  Basic networking skills required, advanced networking (Windows Small Business Server especially) a bonus.

CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!

The newest operating system from Microsoft, Windows 7, is set to ship on time in October.  We at BMCS are very happy with this development, as we've been helping our customers maintain systems as long as possible on Windows XP.  In fact, most new computers our customers have bought have included XP as the operating system of choice based on our firm recommendation that switching to Vista would be annoying for them at best. 

However, with Windows 7, it would appear that much of the problems in Vista have been addressed, and with the addition of support for new peripherals, technologies and multi-touch screens, it is indeed the proper successor to Windows XP.  Yes, there will be a lot of bells and whistles in Windows 7 that purists like Michael and Nathan might find irritating, but let's face it, XP was getting quite long in the tooth.  With the drop in price of multi-core processors, terabyte+ hard drives and memory configurations that make it economical to put more than 4GB of RAM into a machine, we needed an operating system that could take advantage of that on a platform far more open than the proprietary Apple hardware. 

Email or stop in to discuss your best (and most economical) upgrade path.  We'll be happy to help.

It seems that the non-starter on April 1 has come back around to become just a slow starter.  I suppose when they've got several million infected computers to call up as potential bots, they don't have to move fast.  News Article: Conficker Worm Finally Begins Attacking PCs(Reuters) confirms that we're not out of the woods yet on this one.

However, protecting yourself from this pernicious bug is deceptively easy: 

1. Make sure your operating system is completely up to date with the latest patches.
2. Make sure your Anti-virus software is up to date with the latest virus definitions and is functioning properly. 

If you're not infected, then that's it.  Just be wary.  If you are infected, that's a different story. Microsoft offers some explanation and ideas, but we've not seen much success for people attempting to use the live.com tools.